Neville Longbottom: The Chosen One
by Padfoot523
Summary: In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Albus Dumbledore reveals that one other person could have fulfilled Voldemort's prophecy: Neville Longbottom. What would have happened if Voldemort "chose" Neville to fulfill the prophecy instead?
1. The Boy Who Lived and the Dark Lord

**Hey! This is Padfoot523, posting my first story! At the end of the fifth Harry Potter book, Albus Dumbledore reveals that their is one other person who could fulfill Voldemort's prophecy: Neville Longbottom. Remember, I do not own any characters, magic, or anything in the Harry Potter World. I do own my OC's (original characters) which will not appear till the later chapters. Enjoy!**

 **Chapter One**

 ** _The Boy Who Lived, and the Dark Lord that Didn't_**

Here Lies Frank and Alice Longbottom,

Loving Parents and Friends

And the Bravest People that the Wizarding World

Have Ever Seen

1960-1981

1962-1981

James Potter read and reread the carving on the new gravestone. A week before, Frank and Alice were alive and happy at the Order's headquarters. Yet, today, they lay six feet below him and very far above him, happier by far than they could ever be in this world. Their son, Neville, was left alone, living at the age of one with his grandmother.

 _It could've been me,_ James thought. _It could've been Lily and Harry, Remus, Sirius, Moody. Voldemort could have picked any of us, and he picked the Longbottoms. When will this terror end?_

James was not the only wizard who asked himself that question with every waking moment. It had been eleven years of terror, eleven years of hiding, eleven years of fear. No one ever knew if they would walk home and find the Dark Mark suspended over their home, the sign of Lord Voldemort. The Dark Mark meant that you would find only one thing in the home: the bodies of those that had intervened with Voldemort.

To Voldemort, the world was full of ants, and he was the humongous boot that would rule them all. When would this end? Would it ever end?

Lily Potter's life changed when she found out that she was a witch. Born from Muggle parents, she had never experienced anything out of the ordinary. This all changed when she met a young boy named Severus Snape, who recognized and acknowledged her for what she was, a Muggle-born witch, who would attend Hogwarts with him very soon.

Lily did not know what to expect in the wizarding world. When she first walked into Diagon Alley, however, she knew that this curious world would exceed her wildest imagination. She excelled in all of her classes at school, and made many friends. Soon after she graduated from school, she married James Potter and later had a child, Harry.

All was well, until everything began to change. Tom Riddle, now titling himself _Lord Voldemort_ , rose to power. His eleven years of terror were filled with death, destruction, and fear. Friends turned against friends, family turned against family, all bonds of trust were severed in this wretched regime. And, through it all, James and Lily knew that they had to fight.

They joined Albus Dumbledore's _Order of the Phoenix_ , a group determined to take down Voldemort. Also in this Order were some of James's old school friends, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. The group started with many people, and ended with a lot less. Lord Voldemort and his many followers showed no mercy to anyone, no matter who they are.

Mrs. Longbottom cried and cried, until she thought that she might not be able to anymore. Her daughter and son-in-law were dead. All that remained of them was their beautiful one-year-old boy, Neville. It would now be her job to raise him as well as she could. She loved her daughter, and her only hope was that she would be able to bring him up well enough. It would take a lot of discipline and a lot of work, but she would raise a boy that was a strong-minded, courageous, and kind as his parents.

Neville, however, was no longer an ordinary wizarding boy. When Lord Voldemort had broken into the Longbottom's home, he killed Frank with a flick of his wrist and without a flinch. He preceded to Alice, who was attempting to fight Voldemort off in order to protect her only son, Neville. Voldemort told her to step aside. When she refused, he cut her down, just like Frank.

 _At long last,_ Voldemort thought, _the silly boy may die._

Despite Voldemort's desires, however, the boy did not die. As Lord Voldemort yelled _Avada Kadavra_ for the third time in the Longbottom's house, the curse rebounded off of the small child, hitting Voldemort instead. That was the end of Voldemort.

Their were celebrations in the streets, fireworks seen everywhere you looked, and happiness everywhere. However, the question still remained: How did a young boy defeat the man that had killed so many before? The question may not ever be answered, but all that mattered to the wizarding world was that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was defeated, believingly once and for all.


	2. Potential is Key

**Chapter Two**

 ** _Potential is Key_**

Nearly seven years had passed since the death of the Longbottoms, and Neville's grandmother held true to her promise. She worked her grandson as hard as she could in order to unlock the magical abilities that _she_ knew he had, but had still not been revealed.

"Gran, I'm sorry but I don't think that this will help!" Neville squealed, tired after attempting to unlock the door 'with his potential' (as she would say) for several hours. This was a very normal thing at the Longbottom house. Neville had spent days trying to scrub the floor, break the window, and summon a book _with his magical potential_. A sopping wet Neville was a common sight, as it normally meant that someone had dumped a bucket of water on him, hoping that he would instinctively expel it.

"You will unlock that door, or else you will never leave that room again!" his Gran yelled. It was an interesting sight: Neville, locked in his own room and his Gran standing outside, screaming at him to 'unlock the door AND his potential'.

Neville Longbottom considered himself, in all ways, ordinary. Nothing about him was extra spectacular or amazing, he was just Neville. He was the kid that couldn't open a jar of ketchup without help. That is just the way it always was for Neville.

The only peculiar or semi-interesting thing about Neville was the jagged scar on his forehead. His Gran always told him that he had acquired it when she dropped him on his head as a baby. He always supposed that he could tell people that he got into a duel as a child, in hopes of sounding less useless.

Of course, to the rest of the wizarding world, Neville was so much more than an average, useless boy. Thanks to him, no one had to spend restless nights wondering if they would survive another day. Neville had saved the wizarding world, alongside his courageous parents.

Neville's Gran never told him the truth about how he had acquired his scar. She believed that raising a selfless boy should not include the boy soaking in his worldwide fame.

Of course, this did not mean that he did not know everything. He knew all about the wizarding world, and had always known about how his parents had died. It was important that Neville had something to live up to, someone to please, as he grew up. If he knew how his parents had died for him, then he would understand how important it was to make good use of his life.

"Once more, Neville. Try again. You shall have no supper if this door isn't unlocked by 6 o'clock!"

"I'm trying!" Neville yelled, "I can't do it! Please, let me come out! I promise that I'll try again tomorrow!"

"No! I will have none of this! Did your parents ask You-Know-Who to take a rain check on their fight because they wanted supper? I think not! Try again!"

And so Neville tried, and tried, and tried. He attempted the extraordinary, and nothing happened. For several years, Neville remained without any revelations in his wizarding power. It grew tiresome, but as he neared age eleven, he worked even harder.

Three years from now, on June the first, he would turn eleven. On July the thirty-first that year, if he were a true wizard, he would receive an acceptance letter to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry asking him to board the Hogwarts Express on September the first. If he did not receive this letter, then everything that Neville and his Gran had worked for the past seven years would mean little to nothing.

 _Nothing_ was the only magical ability that Neville seemed to have. He could turn absolute 'potential' into nothing. He could turn his hopes of being a wizard into nothing.

Everything seemed like nothing until Great Uncle Algie visited eight-year-old Neville. Hoping to catch Neville off guard and 'unlock his potential', his uncle threw him out a window and dangled him by his ankle. Although his uncle surprisingly had a very sturdy grip, it required concentration to dangle his nephew from a window. When Neville's Great Aunt Enid offered Uncle Algie a meringue, his concentration broke, and Neville fell. Before Neville touched the ground, however, he magically bounced off of the house, through the garden, and into the road.

This display of magical ability pleased everyone in the family, as they were all beginning to think that he was a Squib (someone born from wizards without magical abilities; the opposite of a Muggle-born). It pleased them all even more when he received his acceptance letter to Hogwarts three years later. It looked like everything would be all right for Neville Longbottom.


End file.
